According to SuperData Hearthstone makes 240 million dollars per year.

[sam86]

Why ppl think that hearthstone need that much of team in first place ? it has way too low 'work' in it
Just slap some cards with amazing artwork and even the sound effects are taken from other sources, with half of artwork is taken from older work done already
Exactly how much 'work' did hearthstone need, ever ?

[xenogear3]

There is no question that hearthstone is a big successful story.

However, "Titan" project failed.
HotS and Overwatch require big budget than hearthstone, but they will make more money than Hearthstone.
Plus half WoW sub loss.

[Deleted]

Hearthstone might have low face-value income compared to other giant titles such as WoW or Destiny.
But much greater percentage of that income is actual profit to the developer.

HS is digital distribution only. There are no physical copies of HS as the game itself is free to play. The only revenue they are getting from it, is the revenue from packs and expansions. Packs and exapsnions that do not even exist in real life, contrary to typical TCGs and CCGs

The only cost Blizzard is taking is dev cost and server upkeep cost. Marketing is primarily done by other players, you just don't see giant expensive billboards and campaigns promoting HS. WoD had incredible marketing campaign, including a taxi cab crushed by a giant Gorehowl on Time Square. How many games do that?? Certainly not HS.

[Deleted]

What surprises me in that chart is that appareantly MapleStory makes $240m per year
That's a game that i briefly played back in 2004, is nothing but a major asian grindfest (literally, the only thing you do in that game is kill mobs over and over to level up to ridiculous levels), and has Always been f2p. Staggers me that a game like that makes $240 million annually from it's cashshop....

[xenogear3]

What surprises me in that chart is that appareantly MapleStory makes $240m per year

That is the sad thing about the real world we live in.
Popularity doesn't mean good.

$240 million is "small" money to Blizzard.
If HotS and Overwatch make less than $100 million and WoW loses another 2 million sub, gg Blizzard.

[Deleted]

It started as a very small project, but is now making a bank. Can't even hate on it because I honestly think that the game managed to wrap a very nerdy basement tier concept into an extremely compelling and addictive main stream experience. The designers behind the game are fucking smart. Not even talking about the cards and interactions, just how health, damage, card text etc. are presented. You can live your entire life in a cave, pick up hearthstone and it feels intuitive after 5 minutes.

[slime]

omg crossfire and dungeon finder look fucking awesome!

Anyhow I don't get how it makes so much money - it's not even a TCG - you can't trade cards... oh wait, think I just answered my own question. :/

[Johnkie]

In my opinion Hearthstone is responsible for the shift in direction in Blizzard where they focus on smaller pvp games that have less development time and resources and still make a lot of profit.

You are entirely correct, they pretty much scrapped Titan project and made it to overwatch, after they saw the revenue "micro-games" could generate.
Id imagine thats why we see so much "slack" in wow.

[slime]

There is no question that hearthstone is a big successful story.

However, "Titan" project failed.
HotS and Overwatch require big budget than hearthstone, but they will make more money than Hearthstone.
Plus half WoW sub loss.

What do you mean titan project failed... I thought it was common knowledge it was renamed Overwatch.

[xenogear3]

You are entirely correct, they pretty much scrapped Titan project and made it to overwatch, after they saw the revenue "micro-games" could generate.
Id imagine thats why we see so much "slack" in wow.

"micro-games" are not as easy as Blizzard thinks.
Blizzard got lucky with Hearthstone, but with new cards every 4 months, I don't think people will keep buying.

HotS has no way to compete with LoL and DotA.

Overwatch will fail.
WoW fans like fantasy (magic, sword, etc), not guns.

[Nizbun]

"micro-games" are not as easy as Blizzard thinks.
Blizzard got lucky with Hearthstone, but with new cards every 4 months, I don't think people will keep buying.

HotS has no way to compete with LoL and DotA.

Overwatch will fail.
WoW fans like fantasy (magic, sword, etc), not guns.

You seem to think Blizzard only caters to their WoW fans.

[Raiju]

"micro-games" are not as easy as Blizzard thinks.
Blizzard got lucky with Hearthstone, but with new cards every 4 months, I don't think people will keep buying.

I mean it's slightly slow but why not? They even mix it up with alternating adventure modes / new sets so far.

[xenogear3]

You seem to think Blizzard only caters to their WoW fans.

Video gamers are famous for disloyalty, except WoW fans.
Only WoW fans are willing to pay $15 while not play the game at all.
They may show some loyalty to other WoW related games, such as Hearthstone and HotS.

Overwatch has nothing to do WoW.
It will have a tough time.

[Nizbun]

Video gamers are famous for disloyalty, except WoW fans.
Only WoW fans are willing to pay $15 while not play the game at all.
They may show some loyalty to other WoW related games, such as Hearthstone and HotS.

Overwatch has nothing to do WoW.
It will have a tough time.

You also seem to think that only WoW fans play blizzard games. I know many people who play non-WoW Blizzard games.

[Raiju]

Video gamers are famous for disloyalty? They're known for being dumb shits who stick to their beloved franchise no matter what in nearly every place I've seen loyalty brought up. People stubbornly stick to games as if it's they're life.

[Omega10]

Video gamers are famous for disloyalty, except WoW fans.
Only WoW fans are willing to pay $15 while not play the game at all.
They may show some loyalty to other WoW related games, such as Hearthstone and HotS.

People like Raiju can call me and my wife dumb shits all he wants, but my wife and I have not dropped our subscription to WOW despite switching over to Diablo. For our $360 a year I guess it is, we get a HUGE amount of entertainment for our dollars. Considering how many companies end up ripping us off and delivering so much less than what Blizzard provides, it seems that this is the least we can do.

One day we may return to WOW. Or maybe not, we'll see. In the meantime, as far as we are concerned... VIVA BLIZZARD!!! Thank you BLIZZARD

Even if some guy named Raiju thinks of me and my wife as dumb shits.

[xenogear3]

Even if some guy named Raiju thinks of me and my wife as dumb shits.

You are.

Many old WoW employees have already left Blizzard.
Your $180 are not helping them.

If you want to help them, try Wildstar and LoL which are created by former WoW creators.

[Mormolyce]

Not bad for something they made as a quickie experiment.

So I think its safe to say that Hearthstone is definitely doing to Online Card games what WoW did to mmos. Thoughts?

That's their speciality. They saw a gap in the market and seized it with both hands.

that chart makes me wonder how good "Crossfire" and "Dungeon Fighter Online" are, never heard of them

I think it's something to do with their definition of an online game.

WoW is still what made Blizzard

Warcraft 1 did.

I would also accept "the Lost Vikings" :P

[Omega10]

Many old WoW employees have already left Blizzard.
Your $180 are not helping them.

It's not helping the employees that have left. It's helping the ones that are still there plugging away. And at this point we are happy with what Blizzard is producing. And by this, I mean the current Blizzard. If the ones that are working for other companies are providing enjoyment for other people... well it's up to those other people to support the old Blizzard employees, not me. We are quite happy with the group we are supporting

[xenogear3]

It's not helping the employees that have left. It's helping the ones that are still there plugging away.

You are not helping them either.

The money simply goes to "profit".
It doesn't "produce" any extra new content.